medium. Tom Terrrific,Atom Ant and others preceded him. One of his more obscure predecessors was a guy named Sinbad Jr.

As the name implies, the young protagonist was the son of the famous sailor of The Arabian Nights (no relation). Aside from being an accomplished seafarer in his own right, Junior had a magic belt which, when tightened, gave him the build of a Greek statue and the strength of 50 men. The only other crew member on his ship was his first mate, Salty, a parrot. Together, they plied the seven seas, fighting villains such as Captain Sly, Blubbo and Rotcoddam. Viewers were at a disadvantage in trying to figure out the derivation of the latter's name, since they didn't see it in print and thus had no opportunity to spell it backward.

Junior's own cartoons were made with the voice of Dal McKennon (Inspector Willoughby, Paw of Maw & Paw) in the title role, for broadcast in 1960. But American International Pictures, which had released The Magic Voyages of Sinbad a few years earlier, claimed rights to the Sinbad name. An agreement was eventually reached, and the series finally debuted on Sept. 11, 1965. The extremely limited animation used in it was no longer very salable, so new episodes were made by Hanna-Barbera. In these, the title character's voice was done by Tim Mathieson (Jonny Quest,Young Samson), and Salty was played by Mel Blanc (whose lesser credits include Pepe LePew and The Frito Bandito).

The 81 five-minute episodes were packaged into half-hour shows and syndicated to local stations in that form. Obscure as the show was, it actually had a media spin-off. Dell Comics published two issues of a Sinbad Jr. comic book in 1965. The art was by Tony Tallarico, whose less-than-popular work includes Jigsaw for Harvey Comics and Son of Vulcan for Charlton.

Both the TV show and its even less prominent comic book offshoot quickly ran their course and disappeared.